TL: Etude
"The spiritual energy is sparse!"
Upon entering the secret realm, Ye Tian frowned.
This was a three-star secret realm, yet its spiritual energy was much thinner than the one-star secret realm at the Demon Sea base.
"This secret realm's resources have been nearly exhausted by my Moon God Sect. With the resources depleted, the spiritual energy naturally thins, but the rules of the realm remain unchanged. Even an emperor can't alter the rules of a secret realm, so this place is still a three-star realm!" explained Holy Maiden Xiyue.
"I see." Ye Tian understood.
"Holy Maiden Xiyue, can you now tell me about the beast in question?" asked Ye Tian.
"Of course."
Holy Maiden Xiyue began to explain, "Initially, this secret realm had little value due to its scarce resources. However, when I was promoted to the position of the Holy Maiden of the Moon God Sect, the master gave me control over this realm for 50 years. I didn't care much about this realm at first, but I accidentally discovered a beast here. It's only a king-level beast, but even I can only suppress it and not capture it. I don't know its name, but it possesses a powerful innate talent. It seems to be a legendary talent."
After a pause, Holy Maiden Xiyue continued, "I can tell you, but you must not reveal this to anyone else, at least not for ten years. The beast's ability seems to be a time talent!"
"Time talent!"
Ye Tian was visibly shaken and somewhat incredulous.
Time talent was rare, often spoken of in the same breath as the equally esteemed space talent. While instances of weaker space talents in beasts were common, time talent was unheard of and scarcely documented.
A beast with time talent, no wonder Holy Maiden Xiyue was intrigued.
Then, Holy Maiden Xiyue described the time abilities of this beast: it could accelerate or decelerate time.
The ability to accelerate time allowed it to speed up the flow of time around itself, making its movements extremely fast.
On the other hand, decelerating time was often used on enemies, slowing their perception of time and making their movements appear drastically slower.
During her encounter with the beast, Holy Maiden Xiyue struggled under the influence of its time talent. The fluctuating states of accelerated and decelerated time even affected her thoughts, making it challenging to attack, let alone capture the beast.
After some research, Holy Maiden Xiyue believed that if a high-level beast control talent could subdue the beast while she assisted in suppression, there would be a high chance of capturing it.
"Ye Tian, I know you are capable, and you should be able to keep yourself safe, but I need you to fully utilize your beast control talent. Your goal is to subdue it, not to fight it. Leave the battle to me," Holy Maiden Xiyue instructed.
"Understood."
Ye Tian nodded, but his thoughts were already fixated on the time talent.
Internally, he was ecstatic: "Haha, I'm so brilliant! I kept a copy opportunity, and now the beast's time talent will be mine!"
At that moment, he couldn't wait to see the beast.
Holy Maiden Xiyue had left a special scent on the beast, difficult to dispel. A maid with tracking talent took out a bit of the scent, sniffed it, and began to use her talent, pointing in a direction: "Over there!"
Ye Tian, who had previously copied a tracking talent, also sniffed the scent and secretly activated his talent, sensing a faint aroma coming from that direction.
"Let's go straight there!"
Holy Maiden Xiyue commanded in a firm tone.
Swish, swish, swish!
The group quickly flew toward the location and soon encountered the beast.
It was a mouse the size of a calf, covered in silver-white fur, appearing somewhat timid.
When they were about 1500 meters away from the mouse, Ye Tian used his copy talent to check its abilities.
Species: Time-Space Silver Mouse
Bloodline Talent: Morning Star Level
Space Talent: Weak
Time Talent: Basic
Strength Talent: Basic
Golden Fur Talent: High-Level
"Having both time and space talents, the strongest talents, this Time-Space Silver Mouse is truly exceptional. Its space talent is weak, limited to spatial perception only, which is why Holy Maiden Xiyue wasn't aware of it," Ye Tian thought to himself.
The mouse's basic level time talent was impressive in its own right, not to mention its basic level strength talent and high-level golden fur talent.
"Be careful, the fur of this beast can be launched as a powerful attack, impenetrable by anyone without the strength of the King's List. You all retreat and don't get close. Set up an array around the perimeter. If the beast tries to flee, activate the array to intercept it!" Holy Maiden Xiyue instructed her maids.
"Yes, Holy Maiden!" responded the maids.
They withdrew, setting up an array covering a large area, but they didn't activate it yet. Activating it would alert the Time-Space Silver Mouse, making it flee and impossible to capture.
Meanwhile, Ye Tian secretly copied the basic level time talent of the Time-Space Silver Mouse, waiting for Holy Maiden Xiyue's command.
Whoosh!
Holy Maiden Xiyue was the first to charge, battling the mouse. Her pseudo-mystic level speed talent made her much faster than Ye Tian.
"So fast!" Ye Tian's pupils contracted. He couldn't even see Holy Maiden Xiyue's shadow, a testament to her ultimate king-level strength combined with pseudo-mystic level speed talent.
Suddenly, he saw her slow down considerably, as if some force was decelerating her speed.
Ye Tian guessed this was the time deceleration ability, slowing down time around her while elsewhere it remained unchanged, explaining why Holy Maiden Xiyue appeared so slow to him. Still, her speed was much faster than his.
"Ye Tian, use your beast control talent!" Holy Maiden Xiyue telepathically instructed.
Without hesitation, Ye Tian activated his high-level beast control talent.
Boom!
A wave of energy instantly enveloped the Time-Space Silver Mouse. Sensing Ye Tian's high-level beast control talent, the mouse tried to slow down time, but it was still affected due to Holy Maiden Xiyue's interference.
Ye Tian's talent penetrated deep into the soul of the Time-Space Silver Mouse.
"Yaaa~"
The mouse shrieked, obviously in pain.
Seizing this opportunity, Holy Maiden Xiyue swiftly struck the mouse with her sword. The mouse couldn't evade and was hit hard, flying back with severe injuries.
Enraged, the mouse activated its golden fur talent. Its golden fur shot out like needles, covering the surrounding space.
Holy Maiden Xiyue used her pseudo-mystic level talent to withstand these golden needles. Ye Tian, nearby, also activated his pseudo-mystic level defense and bone talents, avoiding injury from the needles.
In a bold move, Holy Maiden Xiyue suddenly embraced the Time-Space Silver Mouse tightly.